The End of Dave, Actually the End of an Era

I've been surprised to find myself sad about David Letterman's retirement, but I am. I have vivid and fond memories of watching him in the late 'eighties after Carson, particularly of a moment when he walked up to the camera, rapped on the glass, and told us -- all of us, the viewers of America -- to pay attention. At this point, it's a truism that he re-created the late night talk show, but there's something about the way he undermined norms that was part of a larger shift. He sort of did for TV what Spy magazine did for graphics -- not just that what we take for granted now was quite radical then -- but that he and they brought a kind of smart, mischievous tenor to the table. I guess it's what we could have expected from people raised on Mad magazine (speaking as someone raised on Mad magazine), though the meta quality was and is of a different order. (I'm reminded of a Top Ten list which they interrupted to discuss the predictably variable quality of the jokes at different positions of Top Ten lists.)

A couple of thoughts about his last show (5/20/15) -- it was nice that he stuck to mostly the usual format; I remember wishing that Johnny had done that for his last show. Also, his show on Tuesday (5/19/15) had a montage of Rupert Jee that had some of the funniest bits I've seen in a long time.

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